On the backlots of Brugge

I arrived in Brugge in the early afternoon/latemorning depending on the way you look at things and i was immediately taken in by the quaint city. it reminds me of a fairytale sort of place. the cobblestone streets surrouned my tiny little shops and restaurants. people riding their bikes around, canals carving out the city...amazing. i couldn't stop taking pictures. i just felt like i was in a movie backlot (hence the title)...just didn't seem real somehow. met a cool girl (miley)and we took off walking around the city constantly getting "lost"...and just followed our nose to seek out some tastey waffles. turns out the belgium waffle is quite different from what we eat!. smaller and filled with sugar. it's like a little square and is eaten as a snack or dessert. i had one that was absolutely amazing...fresh out of the oven...soo good!  i really loved this quiet little place. some of the backpackers thought it was a little too quiet...but the people there were just great and i felt so comfortable there. and the beer...ohh...the beer around these parts is incredible! not to mention much stronger! i sat down with a friend in the afternoon and we thought we'd have a couple of drinks...proper european style and i was suddenly lining up for our free walking tour of the city with a bit of blurry vision. ha. turns out the beer was 7.5%. but they do serve you less of it...and every beer has it's proper glass.  it's like every beer is savored that much more. and the high foam that sits on every glass apparently makes the drinker exert patience to "build a relationship with your beer"...this way it will taste that much better (i went on a brewery tour...). haha. i'm doing my best to sample as many as i can...i mean...it's only right. plus...i feel obligated to try to special beer brewed by monks. there are only 6 of these breweries left and the beer must have a special stamp to mark it as such. right in the abbey the beer is brewed. some of it is 11%. those guys know what they're doing. very godly service indeed. i've also made sure to smaple the belgium chocolates of all kinds...which...as you may guess...are also amazing. miley and i even checked out the choco-story which is basically a chocolate museum that tracks the evolution of the coco abean and chocolate as a business and trade. it was great! very interesting....if only we lived in a time when cocoa beans were still a form of money. and what happened to purely chocolate drinks??! chocolate milk and hot chocolate just don't compare to what the aztecs and mayans were drinking. straight chocolate poured back in forth from giant containers into a chocolately, frothly drink served for special occasions? let's bring that ceremony back...

Also went on a bikeride out of town to the coast with another friend i met. great guy...from australia of course (i'd say 90% of travelers i meet...from australia). everyone here rides beach cruiser bikes so we hopped on our cadillac-like lowrider bikes and headed off. again...beautiful sights all the way out to the beach...farmland...forests...windmills, canals...just great. the beach was also quite nice and the sun even decided to shine. ash and i firstly grabbed some food where he was hilariously served a "burger"that was just in fact a meat patty in the middle of a giant square, white plate. hahaha. we chilled on the beach for a while and watched all the wind-surfers (there's not many ridable waves...but plenty of wind! hence...many windmills in belgium) skidding across the water. and even more entertaining were the folks on the beach trying to learn this sport. i guess it's not windsurfing...must be called somehting else. they attach these giant parachute-like contraptions to their waists and control the thing with a bar that is also attached from their waist and out to the parachute/kite/tent thing. it extends about 40 feet in the air. from here they have to walk to the water...battling the wind and trying to control this thing without getting lifted into the air 10 feet or skidding acorss the sand...from here they attach a small wakeboard thing to their feet. then...they can finally take off riding in the water. as you can imagine some are better than others...which provided endless fun for us. one poor kid probably weighed 70 pounds and kep sailing through the air trying to control his shute. ha. well...the bikeride was fun, easy and smooth on those bikes but we actually ended up peddling about 60k...my bum was a bit sore...luckily we had chocolate to power our way and beers waiting upon our return.